Oh, my heart! ♥ Tonight, for Solstice, we strung up apples, oranges, and cranberries to hang on the tree out front. It was absolutely everything I hoped for, as far as a project to do with the Little Mr. I’ve never given him a needle and thread to just play with, so I wasn’t entirely sure if he would have the concept down or even be able to get the chunky needle through the cranberries, but he went to town. Well, as much as a 3 year old has the patience for it, anyway. But he seemed to love the project, and we trudged out to the cold, dark yard to hang them on the tree.

Hi friends. How are you? Things around here are slowly but surely getting into a rhythm and new routines. I switched jobs last month, which has been very much helpful overall to my mental health and sanity. Slowly I am starting to feel more like myself, which has meant more baking and crafting and, overall, the things I used to do and love.

With the holidays coming up, I’ve thrown myself into my holiday treat making. This week we made candied orange peels, while the Little Mr chowed down on the oranges when he was supposed to be juicing them for our breakfast orange juice. I can’t complain, really, because it kept him occupied. We played Christmas music and danced and laughed and, overall, had a lovely time together in the kitchen. Today I’m baking molasses cookies, and I’m supposed to be baking chocolate mint cookies, too, but at the rate I’m going I might just do those later this week. Now that I’m not stressed so much I’m finding that I actually have energy to come home and bake and cook again, so it’s easier to plan on that.

I think I’ve also decided to go full ahead with the garden again, this year. Can you believe that? Who knew a bad job could suck so much life out of you?! I’ve even begun thinking of 2018 and how I want to do things differently, now that I have some room to breathe again. Be more centered, I guess, and conscious of the ways I’m spending my time. I’ve started journaling (in a real, paper journal) because some things just aren’t really meant for the public to read and I think that’s helped a lot with some things. I want to start reading again, too. Right now I’m kind of cheating the system and borrowing ebooks from the library to read on my kindle and then turning off network so I still have the book long after my loan expires…. It’s taking me far too long to read a book these days and that’s a shame, really. So if you’ve got any book recommendations, please pass them my way!

I’m trying to think of something to do with the Little Mr for Solstice. It’s something I always want to do and then we never do. Maybe some bird seed ornaments for the tree outside? A craft of some sort? I haven’t decided what, exactly, I want to teach him about the solstice. Part of me loves the folklore/pagan roots of it all, so maybe we’ll explore that.

Nothing new to really report, craft-wise. I have more projects on the needles than I really need and I’ve had a commission or two come up from totally knit-worthy people, so I need to get a move on with those. I’ve always said I wouldn’t take on omissions for my work, but I’ve started making the exception for people I know will truly appreciate the items and so far it’s been a really enjoyable experience. I have been spinning, slowly, too – working on a bit of pretty fiber that I might use to make a pair of mittens out of. I think that’s going to be part of my 2018 goals, too – to spin more, and then actually use my yarn.

Back in November/December I was bored and not feeling a lot of knitting projects and a friend casually mentioned wanting knit Christmas stockings. After some back-and-forth on what she wanted in particular, with a pretty vague “I just want something simple” request, I ended up designing my own. Worsted yarn on size 6 needles (probably could/should have gone down a size) and a few attempts to design my own snowflake chart and letters and… well, here it is. If I end up making this pattern again I might change up a few things – needle size, being one, but overall I’m pretty pleased with myself on these.

They will end up lined, as I’ve learned with the knit ones I made for our family that presents stretch them out and snag the yarn a bit. Plus they need a tab sewn in to hang them with.

Well, the holiday came and, thankfully, went. I managed to mostly avoid being totally Grinch-like, but I just couldn’t find the holiday spirit in me these last two weeks. But I put on a good show, I guess. Now that the last of the parties are over, it’s time to take it all down. Normally I wait until January 1st but I just… can’t this year. I’m over it, and that means it’s time for it all to be packed back up for next year.

The husband’s sweater still isn’t done. Last week I was a knitter with a plan – I had finished the 2nd sleeve on Friday night and it was decided that I’d block the pieces out Saturday, sew it all together Sunday, and then spend Monday-Wednesday doing the collar finishing. And then the universe laughed at me, gave me a stomach virus that left me foodless and in bed for over 24 hours, and before I knew it Tuesday arrived. At which point all my time ended up dedicated to baking and going last-minute gift shopping, setting up gifts from Santa, etc. Maybe if I try hard enough I can get it done before New Year? I mean, as long as he gets it in December it’s still considered a Christmas gift, right?

I didn’t get all the baking I wanted to get done, either. And, because this season was in general a disorganized clusterf—, I have gifts that I completely forgot about that weren’t actually wrapped and gifted to their intended recipient. Honestly, this may be a sign that I just bought too damn much in the first place. I mean, if I couldn’t remember what all I bought then clearly that’s the case, yes? But I still feel stupid about it all – I really, honestly, didn’t buy THAT much. I’ve just really been that scatterbrained this year.

Next year there will be lists and spreadsheets (much in the way I hear YarnHarlot talk about her spreadsheets). It’s obvious that this new role of mine as a mother is far more complicated than I originally anticipated and if I don’t make detailed and early plans – with wiggle room because life happens – that next year might be another cluster as well.

Well, the holiday season has finally arrived. Our tree is up and while it still doesn’t totally feel very merry right now (to me), the tree is proof that it is, in fact, nearing Christmas.

We put up another little Fraser Fir tree today. There wasn’t the meltdown this year that happened last year. I did, in fact, debate on just putting up the fake tree and calling it done. But today we went out and we bought a little 4-5′ one, just like last year’s size, and brought it home. And, you know? I’m glad I did. The smell and feel of a real tree cannot even remotely compare to a fake. I’m not even bothering to put up the fake tree at all – we don’t need multiples, anyway. And that’s just more to clean up after the season is over.

I tried to keep it fairly toddler-friendly. I have a LOT of glass ornaments that the Little Mr would break. It’s fairly full considering all the non-breakables I do happen to have, but I wish I had more to fill the tree with. I don’t think I did a great job at lighting it – I’m still getting the hang of how to decorate a real tree. Artificial ones are so easy to just bend and move to put branches where you want them. But it is what it is, and nature is perfect in its imperfections so that means my tree is perfect, too.

I have more decorating to do, but I might do that a little at a time over the next week. I’m thankful that I’m not feeling like I was last year – that whole needing to do every little thing because it felt like I had to or the holidays would be ruined and the crying and meltdowns over the holidays not being perfect and whatnot. That said, I am heavily avoiding large portions of the internet this holiday season. Namely, all the holiday crafts. The last thing I need is to get sucked into that feeling again and it’s just best to avoid it all entirely for the sake of my mental health.

Welcome

Pardon the garden. A phrase I’m most likely to utter anytime anyone visits the house during the growing seasons of spring through fall. Sure, there are pretty flowers and delicious veggies in there somewhere, but they might be a little hard to find amidst the mess of overgrown grass, dandelions, and weeds that have found their way in there and haven’t been pulled. Read On